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  • William Maley
    William Maley

    By William Maley •

    Rumorpile: Nissan Working A Competitor To The FR-S, BRZ

    William Maley

    Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

    July 20, 2012

    Automakers are taking notice of the red hot sales of the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ. And if rumors play true, Nissan could be working on a competitor.

    According to Motor Trend, Nissan is hard at work on a sports coupe to compete with the FR-S and BRZ. However, the coupe will not use a RWD platform. Instead the coupe will utilize a FWD platform with an AWD variant, most likely from the Juke. Also coming from the Juke will be the 1.6L, turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing 190 HP.

    The coupe would be primarily for China, with Japan and Europe being secondary. The U.S. is under consideration.

    Source: Motor Trend

    William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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    G. David Felt

    FWD..weak.

    Cubical I have to totally disagree with you.

    Out of College I bought my first pocket rocket, 1991 Ford Escort GT, the one Mazda built and it was a blast to drive till a moron trucker re-ended it and totaled the car. Then came a SRT4 Neon and that was a bad ass FWD. Look at what Audi has done with FWD luxury. You can so have a solid small FWD appliance without needing it to be RWD. If they tune it right, you will have a fun car to drive.

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    Robert Hall

    FWD..weak.

    Cubical I have to totally disagree with you.

    Out of College I bought my first pocket rocket, 1991 Ford Escort GT, the one Mazda built and it was a blast to drive till a moron trucker re-ended it and totaled the car. Then came a SRT4 Neon and that was a bad ass FWD. Look at what Audi has done with FWD luxury. You can so have a solid small FWD appliance without needing it to be RWD. If they tune it right, you will have a fun car to drive.

    Different niche...look at the original post. The FR-S and BRZ are RWD...if they are going to try and compete with them, then it needs to be RWD. FWD would be fine if they were doing a Mini competitor, though.

    Small RWD sports cars like the Miata, FR-S, etc and FWD 'hot hatches' like the GTI, Mini, 500 Abarth, etc occupy two distinctly different niches.

    Edited by Cubical-aka-Moltar
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    G. David Felt

    FWD..weak.

    Cubical I have to totally disagree with you.

    Out of College I bought my first pocket rocket, 1991 Ford Escort GT, the one Mazda built and it was a blast to drive till a moron trucker re-ended it and totaled the car. Then came a SRT4 Neon and that was a bad ass FWD. Look at what Audi has done with FWD luxury. You can so have a solid small FWD appliance without needing it to be RWD. If they tune it right, you will have a fun car to drive.

    Different niche...look at the original post. The FR-S and BRZ are RWD...if they are going to try and compete with them, then it needs to be RWD. FWD would be fine if they were doing a Mini competitor, though.

    Small RWD sports cars like the Miata, FR-S, etc and FWD 'hot hatches' like the GTI, Mini, 500 Abarth, etc occupy two distinctly different niches.

    Other than Driving dynamics of RWD versus FWD, if they are in the same price point and are well built fun machines to drive, I do not see the public caring about which set of wheels drives the auto.

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    Robert Hall

    FWD..weak.

    Cubical I have to totally disagree with you.

    Out of College I bought my first pocket rocket, 1991 Ford Escort GT, the one Mazda built and it was a blast to drive till a moron trucker re-ended it and totaled the car. Then came a SRT4 Neon and that was a bad ass FWD. Look at what Audi has done with FWD luxury. You can so have a solid small FWD appliance without needing it to be RWD. If they tune it right, you will have a fun car to drive.

    Different niche...look at the original post. The FR-S and BRZ are RWD...if they are going to try and compete with them, then it needs to be RWD. FWD would be fine if they were doing a Mini competitor, though.

    Small RWD sports cars like the Miata, FR-S, etc and FWD 'hot hatches' like the GTI, Mini, 500 Abarth, etc occupy two distinctly different niches.

    Other than Driving dynamics of RWD versus FWD, if they are in the same price point and are well built fun machines to drive, I do not see the public caring about which set of wheels drives the auto.

    The general public is generally ignorant about cars, though.

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    A Horse With No Name

    IMHO they should get the Z car right first...

    You all know my biases, and that I own both a Miata and a MINI Cooper S....

    However....

    Almost every smaller sporty car under 35K pretty much trumps the Z IMHO. Not that the Z is a bad car, but I think the others are beter.

    Maybe this is also an admission that they couild have built a sport compact out of the JUKE, and used Rouge to gain mid level SUV sales.

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    A Horse With No Name

    They are one hell of a car, and we have the Ohio Prelude Club come out and play with us at SCCA, buckeye Miata club, and Porsche Club events...great group of guys.

    I've seen 8 of these (Yeah, EIGHT) totaled along the highways in Columbus in the last two weeks....last one was Yesterday ayem just off of I- two seventy...

    But...I doubt Nissan will get their sport compact as "right" as Honda got the prelude.

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    ocnblu

    I agree with Moltie. RWD is special, and for people buying a BRZ, they do know what they're getting. They hunger for it. A slammed Juke sounds like a joke in comparison to the purity of the BRZ.

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    A Horse With No Name

    I agree with Moltie. RWD is special, and for people buying a BRZ, they do know what they're getting. They hunger for it. A slammed Juke sounds like a joke in comparison to the purity of the BRZ.

    RE-BRZ....

    Sigh...I am glad you and Caddycruiser like them.

    I fear a gang from C and G, with pitchforks and burning torches, descending to my driveway should I buy one....

    http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5770193-Nissan-working-on-a-mini-Z-to-fight-FR-S-BRZ

    Linky is to a VW Vortex thread where there is a pic of the Nissan abomination....damn is it ugly...!

    Looks like a Mitsu final gen Eclipse beaten with an ugly stick....ughhh.....

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    Robert Hall

    The Scion FR-S is THE DEVIL. Pitchforks shall be used on those who purchase this devil. However, the Subaru BRZ is one sweet car.

    Ummm...they are the same car...some trivial differences, but that's about it.

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    A Horse With No Name

    I'm sure some people are already getting JDM Toyota 86 badges for their FR-Ses....

    Yes they are...it's a popular swap.

    And given how dismal the rest of the Scion lineup is, I would do the same with one.

    IQ, TC, XD, XB....read the critical reviews on these cars. They are not well designed, well thought out cars.

    In some ways I wish they had gone with Toyota GT-86...and dropped the rest of the Scion lineup. It would do a lot of good at moving Toyota "forward" in the direction it needs to go.

    How imaginative of you Nissan.

    Given that the Cube, the Rouge, the Juke, and a few other oddities have come from the imagination of Nissan....wouldn't it be better if they had no imagination at all?

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